Archived

In the interest of making this archive more useful and better organized, here’s a quick reference to the foundation courses I took at Art Center. Here you will find links to the full term wrap-ups and each of the individual course summaries. Tags are also a smart way to navigate the site. You may, for instance, want to view all the posts related to Viscom or posts related to Product Design. You can find these tags at the bottom of each post.

Of course you can still view these posts as they have appeared in the past, by going through them in reverse chronological order.

Term 1 — Fall 2008

• Design Process 1: Form – Using shapes, lines and value graphics to describe intended qualities.
• Viscom 1 – Creating accurate and complex perspective line drawings from imagination.
• 3D Fundamentals 1 – Learning the tools and techniques needed for the creation of industrial products.
• Design Process 1: Space – Exploring the basics of environmental design.
• The Way Things Work – Learning to deconstruct and explain the functioning of objects around us.
• Study Models – Methods to create rapid 3-dimensional representations of a concept.
• Design Fundamentals 1 – Essential lessons in typography and color theory.
• The Way Things Look – A short history of 20th century design and why things look the way they do.

Term 2 — Spring 2009

• 3D Fundamentals 2: Part 1 – Further hands-on lessons in the techniques of industrial production.
• 3D Fundamentals 2: Part 2 – Learning to model industrial surfaces using automotive clay.
• Viscom 2: Part 1 & Part 2 – Using light and shadow to sculpt and define forms in perspective.
• Design Process 2 – Developing a product from research to final model using furniture as an example.

Term 3 — Summer 2009

• Product Design 1 – Developing a functional product based on user research.
• Viscom 3 – Rendering different materials using a wide variety of media and techniques.
• Development of Form – Understanding and drawing 3-dimensional form.
• Rapid Prototyping – Learning how to model parts in SolidWorks for rapid prototyping.

Term 4 — Fall 2009

• Product Design 2 – Bringing a product from conceptual development through branding.
• Viscom 4 – Rapid visualization of nature & man-made things. Taught by the legendary Norm Schureman.
• ID Graphics – Learning graphic design principles for product designers.
• Solid Modelling – Advanced techniques for creating complex objects and assemblies in SolidWorks.

Portfolio Update

It’s been quiet, I know… Things are right on track and you’ll hear from me soon, I promise. In the meantime, I’ve updated my portfolio with beautiful photographs for you to enjoy. Let me know what you think!

Happy holidays and a big surprise!

I have some big news! It has been about a year since I launched this blog and the response has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. Thank you so much for all the kind words. I’ll soon be posting the results from last term.

Next term/semester I will be taking a well deserved break from Art Center before I dive back in for the second half of my curriculum. In the meantime I’ll be working on a very big project I launched yesterday with one of my fellow Art Center friends. Please check us out!

Enjoy the holidays!

Starting Third Term

I’ve had a relaxing break back home in Paris and now we’re back for 14 weeks at Art Center! This should be an exciting term (my third semester) and I’m looking forward to all the classes. The mid-term and final wrap-ups seem to be working well for me, so I’ll keep going in that fashion. In the meantime, check out this great piece from Katherine Bennett titled “A Peek Behind the Curtain” at her blog Design Investigations.

As she mentions, several students have created accounts of their experience in other schools. They’re well worth a look and can be found in the forum thread I started at Core77. I’m hoping to see even more students share their process and not just in the field of product design!

Response

I’m proud to say my blog has started garnering attention, notably from one of my favorite design sites: Coroflot. Along with the positive remarks, I’ve been asked for tips particularly about perspective drawing. So here’s my best tip.

One of the finest teachers I’ve encountered at Art Center is, without a doubt, Scott Robertson. His methods shape the industrial design curriculum and we couldn’t be luckier having him here. About a year and a half ago I learned about his DVD series for Gnomon. It was very influential in helping me build my portfolio. Amazingly I didn’t realize he was part of the faculty at Art Center until my first day of class! His first DVD, Basic Perspective Form Drawing is essentially a condensed version of the first term Viscom 1 class. I would highly recommend giving it a look, along with the second part How to Draw Cars which provides more practice with ellipses.

What he covers in the DVD is very similar to our class lectures. Unfortunately, the DVD can’t quite push you to do hundreds of pages of practice. If you can assiduously force yourself to do the exercises over and over, you’ll get the Art Center experience right at home!